Posts tagged aging

Sugar is indeed toxic. It may not be the only problem with the Standard American Diet, but it’s fast becoming clear that it’s the major one.

A study published in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal PLoS One links increased consumption of sugar with increased rates of diabetes by examining the data on sugar availability and the rate of diabetes in 175 countries over the past decade. And after accounting for many other factors, the researchers found that increased sugar in a population’s food supply was linked to higher diabetes rates independent of rates of obesity.

In other words, according to this study, obesity doesn’t cause diabetes: sugar does.

There are more problems that we need to address of course, but sugar definitely plays a large role in creating our obese society. And we already know that diet is 80% of the health and wellness equation. The other 20% – exercise! You have got to move your body, challenge your body –and when I say body, that means your mind too. Challenges that tax you physically and mentally are key to maintaining a quality of life well into your older years. Muscles are meant to be used –and when we all sit around on computers or on the couch or at our work desks for hours on end — it contributes to many of the problems we all suffer from.

The other day my friend and coach Colleen adjusted her own schedule to set up a special intro session at CrossFit for a prospective customer that had so many issues with making any of the normal times we offer these sessions. It took weeks to find a day and time that worked for her but they finally did. The day came and five minutes before the scheduled intro, the person called and cancelled. I looked at Colleen and said “if it was that difficult to schedule, that person doesn’t want it bad enough and it was never going to work out. She wasn’t ready.”

If you are into something and really want it to happen – you will go to the ends of the earth to make it happen. It takes work, focus, vision and most of all a commitment. I hear quite often how amazing people think my dedication to working out is and they could never do it. Well, first off – that’s not true. I am not any more capable than most people. It’s also not amazing –i made a commitment almost five years ago and have remained steadfast and focused on it. Occasionally I do stray, but by doing it for the last five years –it’s so ingrained in me now, I don’t think I could stop without it driving me crazy. My point is, it didn’t happen overnight but by doing it over and over again without fail – it is now a part of who I am. I redefined myself by staying committed, focused and determined. You have got to want that for yourself.

When I start to feel less focused, I try to think of things that could happen if I let it all go. We all have seen those older folks, hunched over, in those motorized scooters at Target -wherever. Some of them have legit reasons for being impaired, but many of them, simply do not keep moving into their elder years! I NEVER want to be like that –and this is the surest path to avoid it. This, healthy eating and FISH OIL! BOOM!

There are some things that you can’t change about genetics and attraction I guess – no matter how far we have come. I posted this with regards to how women and men are viewed when they are in positions of power – and what is considered acceptable traits for one are actually detractors for the other. Think about all the scandals involving famous men – Kobe, Magic Johnson, Sir Charles, Presidents Clinton/Kennedy, White House Staff, Finance Moguls, Celebrities — most of them weather the storm of bad press and resume their careers. Some even seem more famous and powerful post scandal. As a society it seems to be the norm. Sad…

One has to do with what we typically consider attractive and/or sexy in men versus women. For better or worse … as a culture, we see competence and power as very attractive features in a man. The more power and competence a man and his position (and money) denote, the more attractive he will seem to a whole host of women. This, by the way, explains the appeal of the military flight suit. I single out the flight suit, as opposed to military dress uniforms, because there is nothing inherently attractive in what military pilots refer to as their “green bags.” And yet, a pilot walking into a bar in one increases his chances of getting a date by an order of magnitude over a guy in a t-shirt and jeans. Why? Because the flight suit denotes competence and a certain level of power.

A woman pilot wearing a flight suit into a bar, on the other hand, will see her chances of a date fall. Why? Because (and again, this is a general trend, there are always exceptions), we don’t see competence and power as sexy in a woman. If anything, they’re threatening. When I bought my current airplane 12 years ago, (a simple, four-seat, single engine model), a male friend of mine congratulated me on the purchase, but then added,

“You know, Lane, this is not exactly going to help your love life.”

Is that image changing? Of course it is. More and more men are waking up to the benefits and appeal of a smart, competent, independent and powerful woman. But as a culture, what makes a woman appealing is still her looks, not her power.

Baltimore, Maryland’s Ernestine “Ernie” Shepherd, at age 73, is a certified personal trainer, professional model and competitive all-natural bodybuilder. In March of 2010, on the stage of a television show in Rome, Italy, she was formally given the title of World’s Oldest Performing Female Bodybuilder (by Guinness World Records).

Not content to rest on her laurels, a couple of months later and less than two months shy of turning 74, Ernestine was back in the states and back on stage competing in the Capital Tournament of Champions bodybuilding contest. At this Musclemania competition she came in first place while competing in the Grand Masters division (ages 55 and up) and took second in the overall Lightweight Women’s category.

His assertion is a mathematical fact. No matter how much you exercise, if you eat poorly, you will not lose weight. Let me say it again – I know from experience that when I’ve made it a habit to overeat, I can’t exercise enough to lose weight.

I have mentioned this before and even really showed you with my own pictures. If you eat like crap and workout – you will not see the long lasting results that everyone ultimately wants. You have to follow the 80/20 rule – 80% diet, 20% exercise. Also it can apply to eating – eat right 80% of the time (more if we are really being honest), then the 20% of the time you can eat in moderation those foods that you consider your downfalls.

While small steps are unlikely to solve the nation’s obesity crisis, doctors say losing a little weight, eating more heart-healthy foods and increasing exercise can make a meaningful difference in overall health and risks for heart disease and diabetes.

Ok, hate to keep putting up news that brings you down, crushes your ideas or challenges what you previously thought was true. Livefitandsore.com is about being real about this journey. While any and all exercise is better than none, you have to really get out there and move – change your life, make being active a central part of your and your families life to impact real change.

A sweeping study of 31,337 children and adolescents released on Tuesday tracked snacking and meal trends from 1977 through 2006 using data from four national surveys. On average, children reach for cookies, chips and other treats about three times a day, consuming nearly 600 daily calories from snacks. That’s an increase of 168 snack calories compared with what children ate in the late 1970s.

I can relate to so much in this article. My kids are constantly asking for treats, snacks. I hear from my 5 year old son a minimum of 5 times a day on a good non weekend day, utter the phrase “I’m hungry, can I have a snack”? How can one boy be so darn hungry? And when I say yes but it has to be something healthy – i get the whine and the “i can’t believe you are making me eat healthy” look. I worry about giving them too many snacks and setting them up with poor eating habits that they will ue to navigate things on their own. I also worry about not giving them food when they say they are hungry. My son will literally cry and beg for food before bed, and once he gets it and eats it, goes to bed fine which leads me to believe it’s not a stalling tactic he is using. A power tactic, perhaps! So my strategy is to continually talk about eating healthy food, exercising, and what is junk food and eating in moderation. I can only hope that that is the right approach for my family.

Regular exercise is the only well-established fountain of youth, and it’s free. What, I’d like to know, will persuade the majority of Americans who remain sedentary to get off their duffs and give their bodies the workout they deserve? My hope is that every new testimonial to the value of exercise will win a few more converts until everyone is doing it.

Physical inactivity,” they wrote, “is one of the strongest predictors of unsuccessful aging for older adults and is perhaps the root cause of many unnecessary and premature admissions to long-term care.”

Before I started getting myself in shape, I often thought about getting older and my later years and having to have others care for me because I was too weak to do it myself. I no longer think like that – only that I am helping myself age better and more gracefully now. The power that I have to ensure that my aging goes as well as it can, is something that I do not take for granted. If there is something you can do in your own power to help yourself, you should do it. Easier said than done I know.

LONDON – People who complain they have no time to exercise may soon need another excuse. Some experts say intense exercise sessions could help people squeeze an entire week’s workout into less than an hour. Those regimens — also called interval training — were originally developed for Olympic athletes and thought to be too strenuous for normal people.

I have talked about interval training before and its benefits. Now I am not sure I really buy into getting an entire week’s worth of working out into an hour but I do think there are a lot of benefits to interval training. It also goes along with the High Intensity Training philosophy that I currently follow: that there is an inverse relationship between how intensely and how long one can exercise and that is why they are intentionally kept brief.